ABSTRACT
South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world, as the spatial inequality of Cape Town continues to attest so graphically. South Africa has the highest HIV prevalence rate globally, and there appear to be intersections of risk, with disabled people forming a population of particular concern. A key foundation of Valerie's work on disability is that she sees all people, and assumes that regardless of impairment or difficulty, people have an emotional and intellectual life, and that we all have something to offer. Her recognition of this is the basis not only for the emancipatory, disability related work that Valerie has pioneered in the UK, but also for her work here in South Africa; she sees the good and builds on it. One of the most recent collaborations Valerie has had with a South African has been in the publication of an edited volume on dissociative identity disorder (DID) with Amelia van der Merwe.
